


Laws Of Friendship

by Hekate1308



Series: Baggage [5]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-14
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2019-01-17 04:07:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12357114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hekate1308/pseuds/Hekate1308
Summary: They might not have been the most outgoing people on campus, but they found friends all the same.





	Laws Of Friendship

Even in Harvard, they were the odd ones.

Not that it mattered.

Still, they were outsiders – Dean and Cas, who had already met the love of their lives, and Crowley, who was plotting world domination. Some guys on campus definitely grew a little nervous when they spotted them.

They were okay with it. Just meant they had to make friends in another way than just ask the girl sitting next to them for a pencil.

Normal, Crowley always said, was boring anyway.

It therefore made sense that Dean met Charlie while she was stealing a comic book.

Lectures that day had been a bitch, and Cas had sent him a text that made it easy to see he hadn’t fared much better, so Dean was clearing his head by getting him some of that expensive tea he only drank on special days (no, he wasn’t whipped, he was just a very good boyfriend).

Because he was lost in thought, he didn’t see the redhead running towards him until she all but tackled him to the ground.

He groaned. “Hey, Miss, would you mind watching where you’re going?”

She jumped up and turned around, then relaxed when she saw nobody was paying attention to them.

Dean grabbed the comic book she’d let go off when she cannon-balled into him.

“Batman. Awesome.”

“Damn right. Which is why I am in the middle of a rescue mission.”

Dean raised an eyebrow. She blushed. “You see, I was just hanging out at the comic store and the guy who bought it spent the ten minutes before defending Frank Miller’s All-Star Batman and Robin.”

Dean shuddered.

“See?” She exclaimed. “I couldn’t allow a good innocent comic to pass into such ignorant hands.”

“Are you saying” Dean began slowly, “That you stole a comic because you didn’t like some dude’s opinions?”

“I... might have? I am impulsive.”

“I can tell.”

If Dean had been a perfectly normal law-abiding citizen, he might have had a few things to say about her just grabbing a comic and making a run for it, but years of skipping classes with Crowley had left their mark.

He held out his hand. “Dean Winchester.”

She shook it. “Charlie Bradbury. I can just tell you’re one of the Harvard kids.”

Dean chuckled. “Guilty. What about you?”

She grinned. “Something much better. MIT.”

He wouldn’t have guessed, but then who was he to judge by appearances?

“So what were you up to before you heroically saved me from plummeting unto the pavement by taking the fall yourself?”

Dean laughed. “Getting tea for my boyfriend.”

Only after he’d said it did he realize he had no idea if Charlie would even be okay with that. Sure, she seemed pretty laid-back, but some people –

She pumped her fist into the air. “I knew it! Bradbury’s law strikes again!”

He blinked. “Never heard of it.”

“I invented it” she confided. “It means that, no matter how big a city, eventually all the queers will cross paths.”

“You’re – “

“I will never be tempted to steal your boyfriend” she told him brightly, “We should be friends.”

“Logical” he agreed. She threw him the Vulcan salute.

“Need any help with your shopping trip?”

“You just want an alibi in case the guy with the bad taste in comics finds you.”

“Exactly. Let’s go!”

As far as Dean making friends went, it wasn’t even the weirdest way to get acquainted.

Charlie visited them not two days later, her and Dean having decided they should have a Batman movie night. Crowley had complained when he’d told him of course, but Dean knew him well enough to realize it was mostly for show. Not even Crowley could focus on his studies one hundred percent of the time – and come to think of it, Dean was rather sure he studied the least between the three of them.

That said, his old friend’s need to distance himself from those he considered normal and boring had led to some pretty amusing results. Harvard was full of wannabe schmucks who wore a suit everywhere; and so for the first time since Dean could remember, Crowley had begun donning jeans and t-shirts now and then. Today was one of those days, it seemed. Dean was secretly relieved. Not because he was ashamed of his bestie, but because Crowley could be a bit intense if one wasn’t sued to him, and he’d rather Charlie get along with all of them.

They were kind of a package deal, after all.

Charlie soon came bouncing in.

“Hey! You must be the lucky guy who’s dating Dean!”

Cas took his hand and blushed. “I am.”

“And you’re Crowley” she addressed him.

“Correct. I assume, since you’re at MIT, you have taken a look at our admission files?”

“Of course” she grinned.

Crowley studied her.

“Miss Bradbury” he then decided, “You will fit right in.”

She did indeed. It was a fun night.

Before she went home, she hugged Dean. “I am so glad I almost cause your noggin to bust on the sidewalk.”

“You and me both.”

She then hugged Cas as well. “You look after them, you hear me? Something tells me you’re the best equipped to make sure things don’t go to hell if something happens – “

“I do not see – “ Crowley drawled but was cut off when he was treated to an enthusiastic hug himself. Dean had to turn away when he saw his shocked expression lest he burst into laughter.

“And you – you could probably cut my throat in my sleep, but that’s cool too.”

And just like that, they’d found a friend. A bubbly, sometimes overenthusiastic friend, but still.

After a while, she even got them into larping.

“I don’t know what I expected” she told Dean, who she’d dubbed her “handmaiden” soon enough, “but I probably should have see this coming.”

“This” had been a rather impressive tactical manoeuvre from Crowley, who’d just obliterated the shadow orcs as if they were just a minor inconvenience.

Life went on. With or without shadow orcs.

Meeting Benny wasn’t an accident. In fact, thinking about it, Dean decided it was probably the most normal way he’d ever met anybody who truly mattered in his life.

Benny jobbed at a diner to make ends meet, and Dean had a strong desire for pies that afternoon. They started talking. That was it.

Charlie was absolutely delighted when she figured out that Benny was bisexual as well.

“The Bradbury law strikes again! We can go for days now without seeing a single straight person!”

Cas was strangely reluctant when it came to getting to know Benny, and Dean couldn’t figure out why, until about a month after they’d met.

Dean was studying, or trying to study at least, when Crowley tapped on his shoulder.

“Your boyfriend is brooding again, and this time around I won’t listen to his He is so much better than me and Dean will leave me for him routine.”

“What the Hell – “

“You seriously haven’t realized?”

Crowley started at him. Dean wondered when he in an Iron Maiden t-shirt had become a familiar sight.

“No. What do you mean? Why would Cas think – “

“Benny thinks you’re rather delectable, I’m afraid.”

“We’re just friends. And he knows I’m with Cas.”

“Ah” Crowley raised a hand. “He may know, and you may know, but Cas doesn’t know, no matter how many times I have assured him you’re creepily adorable and happy together.”

Dean frowned and got up. “I’ll handle it.”

“You’d better. I am not storming out into another cold night to find one of you again.”

Dean shoved him lightly to the side, but they both knew he didn’t mean it.

Cas was sitting in the living room, drinking tea.

Crap. He really was brooding.

“Hey you.”

Dean kissed him and sat down next to him.

“I thought you were studying.”

“But this is much more entertaining” he said, kissing him again. Cas relaxed against him.

“So” Dean said, drawing back, “What did Crowley just tell me about Benny?”

“HE wasn’t supposed to mention it” Cas grumbled.

“You asked Crowley to keep a secret from _me_!? Why did you think that was a good idea?”

“This place isn’t that big I can hear you, you know” Crowley called out.

“Then stop eavesdropping! We are having a moment here!”

“And who is the one who has to make sure there’s no trouble in paradise? Me! So kiss and make up already!”

Dean shook his head. “Remind me again why we moved in with him?”

“He’s been a good friend to me” Cas said quietly.

“And I’m starting to think I’ve been a pretty bad boyfriend.”

“On the contrary. But Benny gets all your references, more so than me, even though I’ve known you for years, and he’s got really nice eyes – “

“Now, now”.

Dean cradled his face in his hands. “No eyes beat yours, sunshine, alright? You’re never getting rid of me and that’s it.”

Cas must have read the truth on his face, because he beamed and moved to kiss him.

“Thank God, now I can tell Charlie that daddy and papa are still in love. She’s been bugging me non-stop.”

“Crowley!” they both called out at the same time.

After that, Cas warmed up to Benny.

They met Garth all at the same time. They were hanging out on campus, getting coffee when suddenly they heard someone laughing in a mean way.

When they turned around simultaneously, they saw a few muscled guys – most likely here on a sport scholarship – making fun of a boy with a – sock in his hands?

“And this is gonna help you help others? Looks to me like you need therapy yourself.”

And they knocked the sock to the ground. The poor guy looked like he was going to cry.

They moved at the same time. Dean grabbed the sock, and Cas greeted the guy like he was an old friend. In the meantime, Crowley said a few quiet words to the douche bags that had them scrambling away within seconds.

Yes, Dean had chosen his best friends really well.

“This is Garth” Cas introduced him.

“Hey, Garth. Name’s Dean, scary guy with a heart of gold is Crowley.”

“Excuse you, my heart is as black as the coffee I like to drink.”

“Didn’t know you preferred milk for breakfast. Should have told m,e.”

“Very funny, Winchester.”

Garth looked at them in turn, then slowly took his sock out of Dean’s hands. “You’re weird. I like weird.”

Small wonder, Dean would later think; otherwise he’d rarely have studied psychiatry.

“We do what we can.”

And for a few glorious weeks Dean actually thought that Bradbury’s law had been broken.

Until, one evening, Garth, looking nervous, turned to Crowley and asked, “Can I ask something?”

“Apparently.”

“I just – “ he swallowed. “You’re pan, right?”

“Yep. Why?”

“Is there an opposite of that? Like... not wanting... anyone?”

And Charlie’s war cry of “We got an ace psychiatrist!” echoed through the night.

Over time, they grew closer and closer as a group.

“Boys, we’ll need a bigger apartment” Crowley drawled one evening during a Monopoly game that might have grown a bit too wild.

“Yeah, well, your Highness, you make us those sweet sweet lawyer fees and we’ll look into it.”

It was only after he’d said it that he had automatically assumed that he and Cas and Crowley would always be close neighbours at least.

Ah well. And if they should add a hacker, a psychiatrist and an investment manager to the neighbourhood... who was he to judge.


End file.
